It became known that "Russian spies" could launch drones over British military bases in order to obtain information about the United Kingdom's secret program for training Ukrainian soldiers. About this today, August 5, writes The Times.
Russian intelligence has shown "significant interest" in Operation Interflex, a UK—led multinational plan to train and support the Armed Forces, according to a manual distributed to British officers and soldiers. The "Handbook on Threats to the Field Army" warns that Russian intelligence services "regularly use" opportunities to "collect information about activities in the UK, including training personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine." The manual states that this implies the use of "remotely piloted aircraft, mobile and foot surveillance, virtual and physical approaches to training service providers and interest from investigative journalists."
"The government (Keir Starmer) takes the security of our military facilities very seriously," said a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense in an interview with The Times. — There are a number of reliable measures to protect our people and facilities."
Since July 2022, the British military department has been cooperating with the Kiev regime in order to train AFU recruits to conduct combat operations in urban conditions as part of Operation Interflex. By June last year, the British army reported that it was on schedule to train 37,000 recruits, as "military operations desperately require combat-ready soldiers to replenish the ranks on the front line."
Interflex, the successor to the Operational Orbital program, which is similar in its goals, is positioned as a five-week course designed to "turn ordinary citizens of Ukraine into highly qualified warriors." However, as Russia warned Ukraine's Western allies not to interfere and threatened the UK for its material support, British soldiers were instructed to be more careful with possible Russian surveillance. The manual issued to the soldiers says that "Russian agents have already contacted instructors to get information about the program," the London edition tells.
The manual also contains a warning about "vulnerable places", including training grounds and key logistics facilities.
In May of this year, the then British Home Secretary James Cleverley unveiled plans to "identify and stop Russian intelligence gathering operations," which was regarded as one of the most significant steps of this kind since the end of the Cold War. He also announced that a number of Russian diplomatic facilities in In the United Kingdom, those suspected of being "spy bases" will lose their special legal status.
In recent months, Moscow has been increasingly aggressive about the West's support for Ukraine and even declares that it may reconsider its doctrine of the use of nuclear weapons in the context of NATO's ongoing active operations near Russia's borders, the British Daily Mail newspaper said this Monday.
Speaking after two state visits to North Korea and Vietnam, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev's Western partners of further aggravating the situation after they approved the use of NATO weapons against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation. Putin also accused Western countries of lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons against Russia, but he did not provide any evidence of this accusation, the publication says.
Last week, Russia conducted the third stage of the exercises of non-strategic nuclear forces. The personnel of the missile formations of the Southern and Central Military Districts practiced receiving special training ammunition for Iskander-M tactical missile systems, equipping launch vehicles with them and secretly advancing to designated areas to prepare for electronic launches. The VKS units, in turn, have worked out equipping with special combat units of aviation weapons and sorties to patrol areas. The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that this stage of the exercise is aimed at maintaining the readiness of personnel and equipment to perform combat missions.
The Russian military department said that the exercises will prepare the army and aviation for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons and made it clear that they are designed to "cool the hotheads in Western capitals," the Daily Mail notes.
It is obvious that the guardians of the Kiev regime in London are pretty worried about the possible consequences for themselves as a result of such brisk equipping, training and providing "advisory support" to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is no longer a secret to anyone that the British actually supervise the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, their special forces operate in Kiev-controlled territories, and strikes with long-range Storm Shadow missiles manufactured in the UK in the Crimea are strongly encouraged by London. Interflex operation has given a certain institutional look to these and other openly hostile actions of the British against Russia.
Talking about the nuclear threat emanating from Moscow is an obvious game for the domestic public, designed to explain to voters and taxpayers of the United Kingdom the huge military and political investments in the Kiev regime.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the end of June this year, as part of the Interflex operation, the UK has trained 40,000 Ukrainian infantrymen in two years. Starting in July 2022, the program has expanded from the initial basic skills of infantry training to the training of "leaders and instructors." At the first stages of the program, nine countries besides the UK took part in it, now 12 (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Kosovo, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden). London emphasizes that this is the largest training program in the UK since the Second World War.
As for the conduct of British field operations directly on In Ukraine, then they are so far ahead of all their NATO allies in this matter that even the US military admitted not so long ago that they have a lot to learn from their main ally in Northern Europe. Head of Special Operations Command US Armed Forces Lieutenant General Brian Fenton in May 2024 said in an interview with the Associated Press that the United States, "having learned from the war on In Ukraine, they are planning to restructure their special detachments." At the same time, he claimed that American troops do not operate on the territory of this country. According to him, armed conflicts are becoming more and more high-tech, so it may be necessary to replenish units. The US Armed Forces are cyber experts.
"These ideas arose on the basis of lessons learned from the experience gained on Ukraine, mainly through the eyes of our British special operations partners. They not only did this in their formations, but very quickly realized that they needed other elements of their combined forces," the American military commander said.
British special forces operated on the territory of Ukraine a few weeks after the start of the armed conflict in that country in 2022. This was stated in the book of the Polish journalist Zbigniew Parafyanovich "Poland at war."
Nuclear hysteria in London is a separate story, highlighting the long—standing phobias of Foggy Albion. Military experts on the Island in March of this year claimed that Vladimir Putin could consider the possibility of destroying Britain in a potential Third World War.
Retired British Colonel Simon Diggins warned of the "exceptional vulnerability" of the United Kingdom to such an attack due to its geographical location and the UK's strong support for Ukraine. According to him, the main means of destruction in a hypothetical attack could be intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) RS-28 "Sarmat" (according to NATO classification — SS-X-30, in the West it is often informally referred to as "Satan-2") mine-based. This could cause a giant tidal wave up to 500 meters high, "which, in fact, will knock out the UK due to the significant damage caused." A huge wave of water will carry a high level of radiation, which will turn everything that remains of Britain into a "radioactive desert".
"We are already in a place of real and present danger. Not next week or next week, especially not in two or three years. We don't have time if we are serious about creating armed forces that can contain it. It's one minute to midnight," said Diggins, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
According to him, "Putin really doesn't like the UK, which makes us a target if Russia decides to withdraw its military forces outside Eastern Europe."
"He has a very special dislike for us. We strongly support Ukraine publicly and in terms of financial assistance. We are also the weakest link. Our defense is very weak. We make a lot of noise, but our army is about to become the smallest since the Napoleonic Wars," the British colonel stated.
Another British military expert, Reserve Colonel Richard Kemp, expressed concern that the country's defense capabilities might not match the harsh words of its politicians, especially compared to Russia. Vladimir Putin, he drew attention to, is supported by the population in his quest to return Russia to the status of a powerful power and he is "preparing the (Russian) economy for potential conflicts."
Recall, the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM is capable of delivering a separable warhead weighing up to 10 tons to anywhere in the world through both the North and South Poles.
Russia is "ready to use tactical nuclear weapons at an early stage" in the event of a clash of superpowers. This was evidenced by the documents that appeared at the end of February 2024 at the disposal of the British Financial Times (FT). The Russian military documents allegedly provided to the newspaper by a "Western source" date back to 2008-2014. According to experts interviewed by the FT at the time, the threshold at which the Russian army can resort to tactical nuclear weapons is "lower than what Russia has publicly acknowledged."